Pachyderm poo coffee a jumbo brew for its drinkers

Published Jun 11, 2015

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FOR COFFEE lovers, it’s all about the quality of the bean. And in Chiang Saen, a remote corner of Thailand bordering Myanmar and Laos, the bean is best once it has passed through an elephant.

Blake Dinkin is the founder of Black Ivory Coffee, which uses beans painstakingly picked out of dung to create one of the world’s most expensive caffeinated beverages – and now one of Thailand’s premier luxury hotels is serving steaming cups of the stuff to its guests.

At the Anantara resort in Chiang Saen, where some of the elephants are based, the precious coffee is prepared in front of guests in an elegant 19th century French coffee machine.

Initially, he considered using civet cats to make “kopi luwak” coffee, which uses beans collected from the droppings of the Asian cats. But the quality of the end product has weakened as demand has grown in south-east Asia.

Civet cats are also often kept in cages and force-fed beans, a chasm away from Dinkin’s desire to support rather than damage the environment. Lions and giraffes were also considered, but eventually Dinkin settled on elephants.

But making coffee from pachyderm poo was harder than expected.

“I thought it would be as simple as taking the beans, giving them to the elephant, and out will come great coffee,” said Dinkin, adding that the initial result was “horrible” and undrinkable. – Daily Mail

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